Matrix

Matrix is a card and coin trick in which four coins are covered by four cards and they start magically assemble, one by one, under one card.

Developed by Al Schneider in 1960 and published in Genii 1970 November (and republished in Genii 2000 February ). It's a variation of "Sympathetic Coins" by Yank Hoe, published in The Art of Magic (Hilliard/Downs, 1909). He originally called it "Coins-n-Cards". Karrell Fox suggested "Al-ternating Coins", but being a physics major in college at the time, he decided on a math term for a rectangular array of numbers, Matrix before publishing in Genii.

Schneider was at one time collecting variations for a book titled "The Methods of Matrix".

References

• Matrix Coin Trick by Al Schneider in Genii 1970 November, Vol. 35, No. 3, page 123.
• Al Schneider and the story of Matrix, Genii 2000 February -